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January 19, 2014

Quiet, a little chilly, and alive with geese, the cemetery was perfect for a Sunday walk. Green-wood cemetery is located in Brooklyn, and is one of the first rural cemeteries in America, founded in 1838. It is 48 acres and contains seven lakes. I make new discoveries everytime I visit, this time it was the huge, white koi fish that looked almost robotic. (See in photo below) It is home to 560,000 permanent residents, including Leonard Bernstein, Boss Tweed, Charles Ebbets, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Horace Greeley, Civil War generals, baseball legends, politicians, artists, entertainers and inventors.

January 07, 2014

On the left is my brother-in-law Brian, a musician, a fiber optics engineer and a man with a wonderful mission in life, to follow where his many passions lead him. He is also the father of my amazing niece and nephew! I have great respect and admire this man for the challenges he takes on and for his infectious laughter. When he tells a story, his whole being lights up and his excitement is unbridled. A animated story teller, a guy who could build his own house and a father whose children see his passion and love him for it unconditionally.

I collaborated with him on two guitar projects. Being a guitar builder, he has the know how to strip down a guitar, creating my canvas. Upon completion of my painting, I then hand it back to him to rebuild and put the proper finishing touches on. Created is an ever-lasting, one of a kind, gorgeous piece of art/musical instrument.

The guitar on the right was our first, and we created it for my sister's 40th birthday. It already started out as her purple guitar, we took it and brought it way beyond it's tacky purple ways. As she opened the gift, first it was her eyes, and then her whole face which expressed her joy with the new rebirthing. It was worth all our efforts to bring such surprise and excitement to someone we so loved. It was quite apparent that our collaboration was a success so we moved onto our next one.

Collaborating is about sharing, trusting, and working to bring out each others strengths to compliment one another. Currently I am working on children's book with a singer/songwriter that I have been friends with for years. Working together has been extremely enriching for us both, even if the book never gets published, we both learned so much and grew tremendously in our personal ambitions and pride in our work. We will get it published, and hopefully many others will feel all the love we poured into it. Below is our bios for the book:

I want to thank both these artists for sharing their time and tremendous energy with me, and for trusting me enough to create something wonderful together. I am embracing the ability to work well with others, not always worth undertaking, it easily could lead to disastrous results on a multitude of levels. Collaborating takes you in directions you would never venture to on your own. It is invaluable in that you encourage each other with a sense of ambition, mutual respect, and leaving little to no room for failure. You do not ever want to let the other person down, so you try harder then you would on your own and make sure that the endeavor is completed to both of your satisfaction. It is that pulse of the other that makes you strive harder.

My New Year's resolution is to continue to seek out others to create new, unknown paths to be enriched by. 2014 is my year for opportunity and seeking out magical others. ~ Callie